A conventional sewing machine is ready for forming various kinds of stitching patterns, but it is almost impossible to arrange keys corresponding to respective patterns one by one in a limited space within a machine frame. Therefore, in recently developed sewing machines, with respect to selection of utility stitching pattern, key corresponding to respective patterns are provided, or the patterns are divided into groups, and keys are provided in correspondence to respective groups for directly selecting each of the pattern groups. For selecting stitching patterns other than the above mentioned groups, a number is designated by a ten-key to select a pattern corresponding to said number.
However, the above mentioned manner visually confirms designated patterns in a pattern indication, and selects a desired one by a key operation. In a case of other than the utility stitch, the pattern indication part is spaced apart from the ten-key. Especially, in the pattern of two figures or continuous memory stitchings of a plurality of patterns, the key and the pattern indicating part are visually observed alternately, thus causing a machine operator to feel fatigue in her eyes or erroneous recognition of the numbers.